World of Media-2020. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies. Issue №1.

The issue was published in 2020 by the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

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LEAD ARTICLE

Ejigu, A. &  Gebru, A. (2020) Relationship between press freedom and human development: Evidence from Eastern African countries // World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 1: 5-28. 

The objective of the study was to establish a nexus between the three dimensions of press freedom (economic, political and legal environments) and human development by taking five-year longitudinal data pertaining to six Eastern African countries: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda. The interrogation is theoretically informed by Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach which forms the conceptual foundation for the operationalization of the Human Development Index. The empirical examination of the association among the variables of interest employed both correlation and multiple panel linear regression analysis methods. Prior to the analysis, a protocol was followed that included preliminary tests of statistical assumptions underlying the use of the methods to ensure that the statistical chemistry of the data was suitable to the methods selected. The preliminary tests provided evidence that the data was indeed appropriate for the methods selected. Subsequent multiple regression tests indicated that both the political (p = .000) and economic (p = .008) dimensions of press freedom are important predictors of human development in the Eastern Africa region, lending support to the extant literature. However, the legal environment investigation of the role of press legislation failed to qualify as an explanatory variable (p=.071). Recommendations for further research are presented based on the limitations noted.

Key words: Press freedom, political environment, economic environment, legal environment, regression, estimation, model.

Received: 20.01.20

Accepted: 19.03.20

CONTEMPORARY DEBATE

Gureeva, A., Samorodova, E., Kuznetsova, V. (2020) Media communication activities of Russian universities: Dynamics of the development and evaluation of social network efficiency // World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 1: 30-49.

Social networks are now one of the most popular communication channels, occupying the most important position in the modern media system. Universities as centres of science and education, trying to meet modern standards of media promotion, actively use social networks as a platform for communication with all their many target audiences, with young people as the foundation. The study aims to analyze media communication activities of Russian universities in social networks and to identify the main features of their practices: which social network is most actively used, where media communication activities are more effective and which universities are more involved in media promotion. This article presents the results of the study of the activity of official accounts in social networks of three leading universities in Russia for the period 2017-2020. The data obtained show that the most widespread social network is Vkontakte. However, the number of subscribers and the number of daily publications in the account do not always increase the efficiency of communications – qualitative parameters prevail over quantitative ones in evaluating the efficiency of universities’ media communication activities in social networks. The active presence and response of subscribers are most clearly reflected by such an indicator as audience involvement, and the users are most actively involved in the Instagram social network.

Key words: Media communications, universities, social media, content, engagement rate.

Received: 10.02.20

Accepted: 24.03.20

ARTICLE

Ndinojuo, B. E., Ihejirika, W. C., Okon, G. B.(2020) Prevalent news frames in news reports about military operations against Boko Haram in North-East Nigeria // World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 1: 51-72.

The media have been accused of bias against the military by framing Boko Haram group as being superior thereby making better-armed soldiers afraid of confronting the group in open battle. This accusation was without any empirical underpinning, thus this study objectives were to identify the framing patterns used by Nigerian newspapers in the coverage of military operations against the Boko Haram group in North-East Nigeria. Four national dailies, Daily Trust, Premium Times, The Nation and Vanguard, were analyzed to find out the framing patterns in the reportage of military operations against Boko Haram to ascertain if the frames were more pro-military or anti-military. Hinged on the framing theory, the research method was content analysis. Inter-coder reliability was tested using the co-efficient of reliability suggested by Chadwick et al. (1984). Findings showed that the Injured/Arrest/Capture/Death of Boko Haram members frame was predominant across three newspapers (Daily Trust, Premium Times, The Nation) which made up 22% of the frames while Vanguard emphasized Cooperation frame with 11% of the total frames. Results also indicated that there was a 24% prevalence of the 17 frame categories used in the study. This shows that Nigerian newspapers reported the military favorably with 80% of the frames. Overall, findings do not support the statement that the media are to be blamed for the shortcomings of the military in the fight against the insurgents. Other factors like corruption, non-motivation of personnel amongst a host of others should be investigated.

Key words: Frames, content analysis, newspapers, military, Boko Haram, Nigeria.

Received: 21.01.20

Accepted: 30.03.20